Movies have always had a way of glorifying things. Of selling people on a particular idea. Even if that idea may have more ambiguities than Hollywood screen writers would like us to believe. As we head into Memorial Day weekend many folks will take part in the time honored traditions of watching their favorite war movies. Some networks will show them all weekend. Something tells me that anyone who has lost a loved one in battle…any battle…may not be as keen to relive that grief by watching a make-believe take on the carnage of war. I, like many of my generation, was a big fan of war movies. The Longest Day, Where Eagles Dare, The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes and so many more. It was always easy to tell the heroes from the villians and right always prevailed. We now know war is never like that. As someone who has never been under fire I have no idea what it must feel like but I can only imagine the genuine terror that a regular person must feel. The permanent change that any rational person would go through when they are forced to take a life or to watch his friends and comrades blown to bits next to them. Later war films have had a more nuanced view of these issues. Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, We Were Soldiers, Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers are just a few that show, not only the courage and valor of young men who as Billy Joel put it “Leave their childhood on every acre”, but also the craven venality of the men who push the buttons and make the decisions. The men who start the wars but as Jackson Browne put it 'are never the ones who will fight and will die”. Regardless of how I feel about any particular war and the reasons why we fought and fight them, you can't help but consider that it doesn't matter who is right or who is wrong to the soldier on the ground and in the middle of a firefight. On this Memorial Day weekend I salute those who have fallen in battles old and new. Many, not of their choosing. From Bunker Hill to Gettysburg, from Verdun to Normandy, Iwo Jima and Anzio, from Heartbreak Ridge and the Chosin Resevoir to Khe Sanh and La Drang, from Helmand Province to Fallujah and to all of the forgotten places where soldiers have fallen…maybe forgotten by history…but certainly not by the familes and friends who mourn their passing every day.
For those of you not familiar with the battle of La Drang on the 14th of November 1965, I urge you to read the book 'We Were Soldiers” by Col Hal Moore and reporter Joe Galloway who were both at the battle. It's the story of a newly formed US Army Air Cavalry unit of 400 men that was helicoptered into an area of enemy activity but because of faulty intelligence found themselves surrounded by 4000 crack North Vietnamese troops. Regardless of your views on the Viet Nam war it is an incredible true story of bravery, courage under fire and yes, the futility of war. I highly recommend both the book and the movie which starred Mel Gibson as Moore.
Elections have consequences…..for a guy who continues to bash the Clinton campaign for unsecure communications and e-mail issues, Donald Trump is certainly blase about his own communications in the White House and at his various properties where he has spent copious amounts of time during his tenure as president. Vanity Fair has a piece from reporter Maya Kosoff detailing how at-risk Trump and some of his minons are to hacking. John Kelly's personal cell phone was compromised for months while he was secretary of Homeland Security. Trump hasn't secured his Android phone or the wi-fi networks at Mar-a-Lago and his other resorts. he also has two White House phones, one to make and recieve calls and one loaded with news apps and Twitter. They are reportedly not secured to “sheild his communications from would-be hackers and other surveillance. His staff has urged him to swap out his Twitter phone once a month but he's resisted calling ti “too inconvenient”. He has reportedly gone five months without the Twitter phone being swapped out. We realize that bashing Clinton plays well to his base, but you would think that even this president would listen to his technology security experts on this stuff………………………………..Chris Hayes reported last night that the Mueller investigation has a “dead man's switch”. If Trump starts firing people they will press immediate send on a bunch of indictments………………………..The presidents personal lawyer Emmet Flood was present at the classifed briefing on the FBI informant issue. Its an awful breach and just another example of this president ignoring rules and laws when it suits him……………………………………….Ken Vogel has a piece in the New York Times that details a new alliance of Democratic donors and operatives banding together with anti-Trump Republicans in a group called Patriots and Pragmatists. These Republicans are appalled by what Trump and his minions are doing to the country. Should be interesting to see how this plays out as we head to the mid-terms…….
Quotes Of The Day
“If a white football player wanted to carry an AR-15 onto the field to show support for the 2nd Amendment, the people offended by players kneeling would have his back 100%.”-Rex Huppke
“Our presidency has been debased by a figure who seemingly has a bottomless appetite for destruction and division. And only a passing familiarity with how the constitution works.”-Republican Senator Jeff Flake
“Our country is in the middle of an extreme crisis. The president is lying to us over and over and over again.”-Don Lemon
“To repeat: an American president has casually suggested deporting/expelling Americans who refuse to not just stand for forcible patriotic displays, but do so “proudly”. Should they wear identical smiles to denote “pride”? Who will police the “pride” level to ensure compliance?.”-Joy Reid
“False statements about wiretaps at Trump Tower, False statements about unmasking, false statements about a political “spy” in the Trump campaign, False statements about the Mueller investigation that has indicted the presidents top staff. It's not spy-gate, it's lie-gate.”-Adam Schiff
“In the internment camps we were forced to face the flag ecah morning and recite the Pledge of Allegiance from behind barbed wire fences. Patriotism is earned by a nation that lives up to its promises, It is our sacred duty always to speak out when it does not.”-George Takei
Songs Of The Day
